Hunger Games: One reason for us running a bit late for this month’s memo and media release is that we have been diverted to lodge three bids to contestable funds to see if we can keep Flip the Fleet going and growing. So far we have been supported with a grant from Otago Museum’s Participatory Science Platform – thanks – but this runs out in December and we still need a lot of software improvements and to hire help to keep up with your queries. So we lodged grants with (a) EECA (mainly for carrying your messages out to prospective EV owners); (b) with MBIE’s Unlocking Curious Minds (mainly around science issues like testing the representativeness of the Flip the Fleet database, but also taking EVs into schools); and (c) Ministry for Environment’s Community Environment Fund (mainly to build partnerships and leveraging EVs for raising environmental awareness). Wish us luck!

September’s 1-click survey: Seventy-six percent of you thought people should buy EVs right away rather than wait for improvements in purchase price, range, diversity and charging infrastructure http://flipthefleet.org/2017/when-should-people-buy-first-ev/. Just 8.5% thought it might be better for most people to wait 2-5 years before switching. Your comments were excellent and allowed us to spice-up the media release that will appear early next week on http://flipthefleet.org/discussion/

Your family hybrid fleets: One of the themes emerging out of the 1-click survey was the way many households retain a mix of EVs and ICVs to get the best of both worlds in this transport transition period. So we decided to feature the number and type of vehicles in 147 households that have completed part 2 of the registration data. Only 21% of your households have no ICV to fall back on (Fig.1). The most common constellation is 1 EV and 1 ICV (61%), but 13.6% have 2 ICVs and 1.4% of your households have 3 ICVs. Obviously it makes sense for a lot of families to keep (usually old) ICVs for towing and long trips while transferring most of ordinary short range travel to the EVs in your garages.

Comments

This survey shows the need for more fast chargers. I believe that is the reason for ICV’s still being in use for longer trips. There will of course be use for ICV’s until such time the range improves on EVs. Good to see these result – much what I would have expected to see. Thanks for all your work in bring this to us. Wish you luck with your grants. Fingers crossed.

I don’t agree. Most people haven’t even heard of charge.net or know of the fast charger network. And range is more a perception then a real world issue. All my workmates driving to work should be doing with an EV, they are just driving into Wellington from the Hutt or Porirua etc…